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Oshkosh
Oshkosh Corporation, once named Oshkosh Truck, is a manufacturer of specialty trucks and truck bodies for defense, industrial and fire emergency applications. It is based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and employs about 7,000 people worldwide in five countries. History The company was founded in 1917 as the Wisconsin Duplex Auto Company and was created to build a severe-duty four-wheel-drive truck. The first prototype was built, and upon its strengths as a vehicle, the company began to take off. This first four-wheel-drive truck is known today as Old Betsy. It is still owned by Oshkosh Corporation and housed in one of its assembly plants in Oshkosh. Old Betsy still runs and is used frequently in demonstrations and parades. The company was founded by the Mosling Family in Oshkosh, WI before World War I. Originally manufacturing rear axles for trucks, the company became prosperous during the war due to the government contracts, and it began assembling trucks also. The real expansion of the operation came about when John Mosling took the firm over from his father and expanded into other types of vehicles, besides army trucks. After WW. II the products were concrete carriers, snow-plow trucks for both the Air Force and for commercial airports, and very heavy "desert trucks" for oil field explorations in the Arab peninsula. By the 1960-s Oshkosh was a well established specialty truck manufacturer/assembler with about $20 million sales annually. It's distribution network was the world-wide Caterpillar dealer organization, after Mosling committed to use Caterpillar Diesel engines in the trucks. John Mosling, working with advisors from Earnst & Young, also undertook a major expansion into new markets in the 1970-s, when the nation's airports suddenly needed fire/rescue equipments. He, building on the experience of Oshkosh with similar Air Force fire/crash trucks, aggressively marketed fire/rescue vehicles to the US airports. Around 1970, John Mosling established a cooperation with South Africa's largest Caterpillar dealer, the Barlows Corporation, to build truck assembly facilities there. The operation began in Paarl, near Cape Town, in small temporary facilities, where the rugged Oshkosh trucks were assembled from kits shipped from Oshkosh. Soon, a cab-over truck was also developped by Oshkosh engineering specifically for the South African market. After a decade, the operation became wholly owned by the Barlows organization. Meantime the US Army, rebuilding its armored vehicle systems, needed new type of trucks to haul its tanks around. Oshkosh, through a long bidding process succesfully obtained a long contract for the Heavy Equipment Transporter. Thus, Oshkosh's success in those times were tied closely with supplying the military with the equipment they needed, even remanufacturing for them their used trucks. John's sons entered the business in the 1970-s and brought in a new, professional management for the company, greatly expanding its markets. The company went public and its share values just kept multiplying. Aquisition followed aquisition, and now Oshkosh Truck is an over 3 billion dollar public company company, listed as OSK. The company took on the name Oshkosh Truck in 1918, when it moved to Oshkosh. It began building defense trucks during World War II. An Oshkosh truck is the current prime mover for the British Army Heavy Transporter (Tank transporter), capable of carrying 118 tons. On October 16, 2006, Oshkosh announced an agreement to purchase JLG Industries for $3 billion in an attempt to diversify their business and decrease their dependence on defense spending.Bloomberg.com: Worldwide On February 5, 2008, Oshkosh announced that the company has received shareholder approval to change the company's name to Oshkosh Corporation, to reflect the increased diversity in the company's product lines. The Company has a European Manufacturing facility in Austria ? Products Its brands include: Commercial *Oshkosh Truck *Pierce - fire trucks, (purchased in 1996) *Medtec (ambulances) *McNeilus (concrete mixers and refuse trucks) *Geesink (European trash-hauling) *Norba (European trash-hauling) *Kiggen (European trash-hauling) *Jerr-Dan (towing) *CON-E-CO (Concrete Equipment Company) *London Machinery (Concrete Mixers) * S Series concrete mixers * Glider kits * S Series Revolution mixers * Highlander truck based mixers * Iowa Mold Tooling Co. (field service vehicles and truck-mounted cranes) Military * Alpha * Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck - HEMTT and HEMTT-A3 (hybrid truck). * Heavy Equipment Transport System * Homeland Security command vehicle * Bushmaster IMV - Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicle, produced in partnership with the Thales Group * Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) * Palletized Load System (PLS) * Logistics Vehicle System (LVS) * Plasan Sand Cat Airport Fire/Snow Removal * BAI (Brescia Antincendi International S.r.l.) (Italian fire trucks) * Tactical Fire Fighting Truck * Wheeled Tanker * Bushmaster - assured mobility vehicle * Oshkosh Striker airport fire truck (Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting "ARFF" trucks) (models 1500, 3000, 4500) * H-series snow blower * MPT Series snow plough - truck * P Series Snow plough UK Trucks * The main use in the UK is as the ARMY HEAVY TRANSPORT tractor unit. * The other use is as Fire Engines at Airports. Preservation A rare UK Oshkosh is shown right. Used as a Ballast tractor for hauling a low loader trailer with classic machinery on. See also *List of Truck Manufacturers *Heavy Haulage *List of Heavy Haulage Contractors *Haulage Equipment Manufacturer References Based on Wikipedia article. * The World Encyclopedia of Trucks, by Peter J. Davies. External links *Company Website *The Oshkosh, the Truck of Trucks *ProPulse hybrid drive technology. Category:Companies of the United States Category:Merged companies Category:Truck manufacturers of the United States Category:Heavy Haulage Category:Concrete trucks Category:Oshkosh Category:Companies founded in 1917 Category:Construction plant manufacturers Category:Military vehicle manufacturers